Aero Orange from Diplomat – a siren song!

Admittedly, I am a fountain pen fanatic. Like so many of you out there, I too, can never have enough of fountain pens. I already have more pens that what I can possibly write with for the rest of my life – many, many more times over. Yet, like the Sirens they lure me with their enchantment and transfixed, I steer my course, to follow their bidding, prospect of certain shipwreck notwithstanding.

This Orange Diplomat Aero was one such Siren Song. The moment I saw the Aero in the Diplomat table in the 1st India Pen Show in Mumbai earlier this month, I could feel the butterflies in my stomach, fluttering their way to my heart, spreading the warm glow that is synonymous with love at first sight. The urge to touch her, to run the fingers on that sun-baked body with its muted metal sheen was overwhelming. I am old enough to know the futility of resisting temptation of the sort I was feeling – it was already registering its tremors in the Richter’s Scale – so I succumbed to her wilful ways without a fight. I picked her up and put her where she belongs – in my shirt pocket, with my heartbeats to give her company.

An Orange Diplomat. Yes, it is a contradiction of terms, a misnomer. For the colour orange is overwhelmingly Dutch, associated with Holland, the Netherlands. But Diplomat pens are as German as Germany can ever be. They have been like this since way back in 1922, when they first started manufacturing writing instruments using “traditional methods of craftsmanship”, which according to the company refers to “the combination of an exceptional know-how and high-quality materials, that allows our pens, to stand the test of time and anchor the link between generations”.

In plain English, that means it is a proud German pen that has seen the incorporation of the sturdiest materials, backed by a typically German obsession with engineering that is aimed at lifetime performance. There is nothing frivolous about the Aero (or ant Diplomat pen for that matter) – it is like an armoured car that is designed to ram through any obstacle that one chooses to throw on its way. The full aluminium casing of the Aero and anodised surfaces that heighten the grooved surfaces as if they were trenches being overrun hinting at the war that isn’t.

Is it a tank? A flying fortress?
It is … the Aero, I smiled, the child in me exulting!

Yet, for all its protective sheathing, it is surprisingly frisky on its feet – light in the hand, if you may. Put it on paper and glides effortlessly, doing the blitzkrieg! The finely chiselled and polished stainless-steel nib doing what pens have been known to do to beat the swords for aeons at an end now – slice through the opposition: words dripping with petrol, vitriol and death strolls.

The sheer amount of writing one gets from the pen without it giving even a hint of discomfiture – aching fingers and all, is mind-boggling. Is it due to the ergonomy of the shape? Is it due to the weight of the material? Or, is it due to the way the pen is designed to rest snugly on one’s middle finger as one grips the section to turn the nib towards paper? Perhaps it is it the nib itself – the smooth flow of cold steel even as it pours the warmth from the cockles of one’s heart – where cold professionalism of performance, the steely resolve meets the ink of creativity.

Point is, come to think of it, none of it matters. For, ours is not to reason why. We are lovers, aficionados, penophiles … the why’s and the what’s and the when’s of the material world matter little to us, overwhelmed as we are by the how’s alone. It is how the Aero feels in our hands. It is how the Aero makes us feel when it is in our hands. It is how we feel when our eyes caress the Aero. It is how the Aero loves us back. It is how the Aero’s cap, in a careless whisper, slides back, for, it incorporates an exclusive closing system!

Trust me, the Aero feels
like no other. That the Aero will act like no other, is however, a matter that
is beyond conjecture. There is a thing called lineage, after all.

On second thoughts add an “impeccable” to it.

Anish Todarwal of Team Diplomat, India.

PS. A huge Thumbs up to the Diplomat India team led from the front by Anish Todarwal. You guys were not only extremely professional, but knowledgeable and courteous to boot. You did the Diplomat brand and the very act of diplomacy proud!

Thats Me

I write. I help brands find their salience. I hand-hold young minds as they give shape to their dreams.
And I collect Fountain Pens – pieces that helped create the times we live in. They teach me stuff –
about precision, craftsmanship, passion, dedication, knowledge, creation – that I try to communicate
through them.
Trust me, fascinating is putting things mildly.